Birnam Wood

Wow, just wow. This totally packed a punch I didn't see coming in the first 3/4. The ending ramped it from a 4 star to a 5 star read.

Birnam Wood are a group of guerilla activist gardeners in Christchurch who as well as planting legitimate crops in people's spare ground and harvesting and selling the produce, cultivate hidden spaces in abandoned lots. They're pretty small fry but founder Mira has her eyes set on bigger things, namely a large farm in Thorndike, bordering the Korowai National Park. The farm is owned by the newly knighted Sir Owen Darvish a pest controller with aspirations of grandeur and his wife Jill who inherited the property from her parents. However, since a landslide has created a dead end not far beyond the Darvish farm, essentially ruining the economy of Thorndike, the couple has moved to Wellington and Mira sees the land as claimable.

When she arrives at the farm though, billionaire American businessman Robert Lemoine is already there, having secretly offered to buy the property from the Darvishes to allow access to the rare metals in the neighbouring National Park, something he could never get through legitimate channels.

Lemoine, seeing in Mira a fellow opportunist decides to woo Birnam Wood with money and fame, and the game between the two is afoot.

There's so much going on in this book - relationships, between Owen and Jill, Mira and her colleague Shelley, and between idealistic and determined free lance writer Tony and the collective. Tony thinks Lemoine is hiding something, and if he can prove it, it'll be the biggest break of his career. I also enjoyed the subtle dark humour, especially when things get misinterpreted, misunderstood or lost in translation.

But the real gem in Birnam Wood is the last 1/4 of the book, where all the parts of the story come together for a totally unexpected and brilliantly crafted ending.